trble81

My knuckles feel like they're on fire because of them being dry (darn cold weather) and sticking them into salt water. I too started to use moisturizer at night and they don't hurt that much either. But some people do have protein allergies. Tell tale sign would be the appearance of hives.

Awesome! I wish we could have been there to see it in person.

An update: We soaked the visijet in a vinegar and water mixture and tried cleaning it out with the metal cleaning tool and hit the same blockage again, but this time Mike was able to get it to clear out. For the time being the skimmer is working again but I still think we should get a new one since this seems to happen too often (we have only had it for about a month). Any other suggestions (or offers of skimmers for sale) would be much appriciated. Thanks, Heather (and Mike too)

Thanks for the suggestions Steve. We'll try the soak and start looking online. Does any body have any other suggestions so we can do some comparison shopping? I know it's difficult because of the size of our tank and the fact we are looking for a hang on skimmer.

All, I've read your posts on similar topics and understand that you really do get what you pay for. Any way, we have 35 gallon hex tank and our Visi-Jet ps100 decided to stop making bubbles (ugh!!). This happened before so I took off the little air tube...nothing. Checked for water in the air intake...nothing. Yanked that sucker out and tried to clean any obstruction with the wire cleaning tool thingy that they give you....well when I tried to go through the air intake, I hit what felt like a brick wall. I've cleaned it before and not had this problem. I'm thinking it's done. Any way, I'm looking for advice as to what to get. Again, we have a 35 gallon hex tank and we're looking for a hang on skimmer. I'd like not to spend a ton of money but going the cheap route kind of just burned us. I know that Petco has a Red Sea Prizim skimmer but their online reviews say it's good but loud. I'm looking for suggestions. Thanks in advance! --Mike and Heather

We picked up a book from our local book store. I think it was the pocket guide to reef fish (which has an older addition that's still fine that's called the pocket guide to marine fish). Any way, the book was suggested to us and it's pretty good because it has easy to follow color rating that tells you how hard/easy it is to take care of, what it eats, if it's cool with inverts, soft, and hard corals. Plus, it has info related to compatibility (i.e., this particular fish is the most/least aggressive... or add this fish last)

When my wife and I set up our tank (35 gallon hex), we bought 17 lbs of live rock from our LFS (Scales). All of our sand is live sand which we also got from said store. We then added some LR from a fellow member's tank (which he had for ~1 year) to what we had (23 lbs of that for a grand total of 40). We never saw an ammonia spike or anything that would be indicative of the cycle in action due to die off. We allowed our tank to cycle for almost a month before adding any fish. The only living things that we had in there are some polyps that hitched a ride, some tiny sea stars that we didn't notice until everything was added, and of course any worms that came along too. The only thing that went up were the Nitrates (10 ppm); which, I guess, means that the cycle happened. Now we have a couple of clowns, a blue leg hermit, a pulsing xenia, and a kenya tree and the levels haven't changed one bit (Nitrates at 10 still). I guess the reason is just let things cycle in your tank for a few weeks. We were a little impatient when we didn't see a cycle with the water tests but because we took the advice of the senior members, I think we're doing OK.

Those look amazing! I agree that if you decided to do some "pruning" I will definately be in line to take some.

How could something named chocolate chip be bad...? :wink: I heard a story about one mounting a clam and eating it right good (it's kind of cool to see because they pry the thing open and invert their stomachs out of their mouths and digest the clam right there...until you realize how much you paid for said clam and then you're looking for a kitchen knife for vengence)

Wow, that's a whole lot of scum eaters. I'm kind of a noob but won't that make competition for food a little nuts?

That's what we're thinking too :wink:

you should post a WTB add and see who responds

Cool beans, thanks everybody. If it does call it quits, I'll wear a tag at the next meeting I attend that says, "I'm the one who killed an indestructable kenya tree."

We just got a frag of a Kenya tree from a fellow WAMAS member about 3 days ago or so. I mounted the guy on a piece of live rock when we got him and he was standing up. A few min after I did that, he must have realized that I touched him so his "trunk" got all shrively and he bent himself in half, and then all the way down. After about a few hours, he decided to unshrivel himself and he's moved slightly, but is still laying down (with the base of his "trunk" in the same position). Now, I figured he's just mad at me. His color is still the same (no bleaching, no oozing of any kind) and his little polyp things (boy I'm a noob) are still closed. I know it can take a while for it to attach and all but my question is should I just let it chill out and do it's thing or is it waiting for me to do something for it. Oh, by the way, addition of Viagra will not be considered :wink: Thanks!

We actually added the larger/adult false perc to the tank a few days ago. They are both as happy as can be! The little one likes to mimic the larger one (the big guy swims down the glass, then up...and so does his little shadow). They haven't chased each other or shown any agression. The larger one does like to hang near the surface a lot of the time but when they have an audience, they'll swim around the tank. Hopefully this relationship will not change.

If your tank was cloudy as a result of this "action", then it was probably spawning. You can do a google search for the images and you see a cloudy-ness coming off of a snail that's spawning. As far as a tube and the color of whatever it was...we....if it isn't belly up in your tank, I guess it's not whispering "rosebud..."

Well I guess we will be ok in taking the adult false perc and adding it in with our juvie. Hopefully they will get along and maybe someday pair up. Maybe I am wishing too much and should just stick with hoping they don't kill each other. They will be the only fish in the tank for now though.

All, We have a juvie false perc in our tank now (newly aquired from the Scales social). We had been offered another false perc from a member. That one is an adult. He's a model citizen in his tank but will that transfer over to ours? We have a 36 gallon hex with a bunch of LR where the little guy can hide but would it be better to get a different type of clown (like a Clarkii)? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Yikes!! I'm glad all your stuff is doing well.

Hey everyone, I'm sure everyone who attended the social event at Scales this evening is busy acclimating their new fish, adding new coral, wishing they had frags to bring, etc... We just wanted to go ahead and put a thread up that said a big thank you to Andrew and the folks over at Scales. Any one who gets a bunch of pizza and wings and plenty of cold sodas and beer is OK in my book. And as Andrew said at the meeting, the stuff he had set up was new and I think we're going to see some good stuff in the near future. Plus, it's always good to have a LFS that my wife and I can drive to in a reasonable amount of time . I also want to give a shout out to Ken from CMAS for bringing free Xenia for people. I hope every one had a cool time. The one thing that my wife and I noticed is that it was a little hard meeting people if you're new to the club. I know it was tough having two different clubs there but I don't know if it would be good to have name tags (as lame as that sounds) or something that we could match forum IDs to faces to actual names. But this was our first "official" event that we were able to come to so I don't know if it's different during other meetings. cheers , Mike and Heather

That is great! It looks like from the pictures that they basically built the hotel around the tank. I wish I could go see that in person.

Welcome to the forum Gio! The tank looks great. Hope to see more pictures in the future.

It looks great! By the way, what kind of anenome is that? I love it!

Thanks for the reading. And thanks to both of you for the suggestions. I've opened the hood to the tank and cranked up my protein skimmer (more oxygen in the tank from the more bubbles and stuff). Good to know I'm just freaking out for not a big reason right now.

All, We were doing our chem tests on our water today and we finally saw an increase of Nitrates :( . That's fine, I'd hate to have put fish in and had them suffer because I wasn't patient. Everything else was fine, except the pH. Our pH is at 7.8. I need it to be at 8.2. With the exception of going out to Petsmart or some place and getting a buffer solution that'll raise it to the golden mark, is there a "Rachel Ray" solution that we could do (i.e. baking soda and water or something). Again, no fish in the tank so no worries on that end. If I have to break down and buy something, I will but I remember someone had a similar problem and there was a simple solution for it. Thanks in advance. --Mike and Heather